The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases, which includes regulation of the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Money from the auction or sale market-based compliance mechanism is deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law continuously appropriates 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority for certain purposes.

This bill would eliminate the continuous appropriation of 25% of the annual proceeds of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority on June 30, 2026. The bill, beginning with the 2026–27 fiscal year, would instead require 25% of the annual proceeds of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to be transferred to the General Fund and for those moneys, upon appropriation, to be used to augment funding provided to local governments to improve infrastructure.

The Roberti-Z’berg-Harris Urban Open-Space and Recreation Program Act provides grants to cities, counties, and certain districts for recreational purposes, open-space purposes, or both, on the basis of population and need. The act requires property acquired or developed with the grant money to be used by the grant recipient only for the purpose for which the grant moneys were requested and prohibits any other use of the area except by a specific act of the Legislature.

The California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access For All Act of 2018, approved by the voters as Proposition 68 at the June 5, 2018, statewide primary direct election, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $4,000,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance a variety of drought, water, parks, climate, coastal protection, outdoor access, and related projects.

This bill would authorize the County of San Bernardino to dispose of up to 4.2 acres of property at Glen Helen Regional Park, including property acquired or improved with grant moneys from the bond acts described above, subject to the acquisition of replacement park property of equal or greater recreational value approved by the Department of Parks and Recreation, to be used for park purposes and at no cost to the state or the county, as provided.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.

Existing law, until January 1, 2028, except for the issuance of a permit or other permit approval, exempts from the requirements of CEQA prescribed fire, reforestation, habitat restoration, thinning, or fuel reduction projects, or related activities, undertaken, in whole or in part, on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire that have been reviewed under the federal National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 meeting certain requirements. Existing law requires a lead agency, if it determines that a project qualifies for the above exemption and it determines to approve or carry out the project, to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and with the county clerk in the county in which the project will be located and to post the notice of exemption on its internet website together with a description of where the documents analyzing the environmental impacts of the project under the federal act are available for review. Existing law requires the lead agency, if it is not the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to provide the notice of exemption and certain information to the department.

This bill would extend the above exemption and requirements on the lead agency indefinitely. By extending the requirements on the lead agency, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

This bill would require the State Air Resources Board (state board), on or before January 1, 2027, to finalize the standardized system for quantifying the direct carbon emissions and decay from fuel reduction activities for purposes of meeting the accounting requirements for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund expenditures. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, to adopt a method of quantification of the life-cycle emissions benefits from alternative uses of forest and agricultural biomass residues. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, to assess the suitability of developing a carbon credit or offset protocol for beneficial carbon removal products, including, but not limited to, biochar that are generated from agricultural or forest waste biomass, for inclusion in the state board’s compliance offset program. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2029, to adopt a carbon credit or offset protocol for biochar or other carbon removal products and include that credit or protocol in the compliance offset program if the assessment determines that a carbon credit or offset protocol for production and use of biocar or other carbon removal products is appropriate.

The bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to require all state-funded forest health projects to include an appropriate forest biomass resource disposal component that includes a scientifically based, verifiable method to determine the amount of biomass to be physically removed and the amount to be burned by prescribed fire. The bill would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to include the value proposition of using biomass for low- and negative-carbon liquid and gaseous fuels, including hydrogen, from noncombustion conversion technology methods and other emerging and innovative approaches in relevant reports and other agency-sponsored documentation.

This bill would enact the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 and would establish the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Program to be administered by the California Environmental Protection Agency (agency) to require fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere during the covered period, which the bill would define as the time period between the 1990 and 2024 calendar years, inclusive, resulting from the extraction, production, refining, sale, or combustion of fossil fuels or petroleum products, to relieve a portion of the burden to address cost borne by current and future California taxpayers.

This bill would require the agency, within one year of the effective date of the act, to conduct and complete a climate cost study to, among other things, quantify the total damage amount, which the bill would define as all past and future climate harms and damages to the state from January 1, 1990, through December 31, 2045, inclusive. The bill would require the agency to update the climate cost study, not less frequently than every 5 years, through January 1, 2045, as provided. The bill would require the agency, within 60 days of the completion of the climate cost study, to determine and assess, as provided, a cost recovery demand for each responsible party listed, which represents the responsible party’s proportionate share of the total damage amount. The bill would require responsible parties to pay their cost recovery demand, as provided. The bill would require the collected cost recovery demands to be deposited in the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Fund, which the bill would create in the State Treasury.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This bill would revise the [Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019] (program) provisions to require the [Department of Housing and Community Development] (department) to rank applications, based on the qualifying infill area’s or catalytic qualifying infill area’s inclusion of, or proximity or accessibility to, a transit station or major transit stop or walkability to essential services or businesses. The bill would additionally revise these provisions to require the department’s ranking to be based on the proximity of housing to services, rather than social services.

This bill would expand the definition of “qualifying infill area” to additionally include a contiguous area located within an urbanized area for which the capital improvement project for which funding is requested under the program, is necessary, as provided, to make the area suitable and available for residential development pursuant to the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022, which subjects a housing development to streamlined, ministerial approval under certain circumstances, as specified.

This bill, as an alternative to including at least 15% of affordable units, would allow a project under the program that is a by-right site and in compliance with certain provisions deeming a housing development an allowable use or subject to streamlined, ministerial approval, as specified, to meet the affordability requirements under those provisions. The bill would additionally allow the project to be located in an area that allows for mixed-use or residential development pursuant to a housing development that is in compliance with those provisions deeming a housing development an allowable use or subject to streamlined, ministerial approval, as specified.

This bill would revise the definition of “capital improvement project” to require that streets or roads funded under the program be publicly maintained and open to use of the public for purposes of vehicle travel and serve as a connector within a qualifying infill project or qualifying infill area. The bill would also expand the definition of “capital improvement project” to expressly include nature-based solutions that are proven to reduce the risk from climate change, as specified. The bill would also revise the definition of “urbanized area” to instead mean an incorporated city or an urbanized area as defined by the United States Census Bureau. The bill would additionally define the term “major transit stop” for purposes of the program to mean a site containing an existing rail or bus rapid transit station, a ferry terminal served by either a bus or rail transit service, or the intersection of 2 or more major bus routes that meet specified frequency criteria, including major transit stops that are included in the applicable regional transportation plan, as provided.